Las Vegas NHL Franchise Sells Out Season Tickets for Inaugural Season

Majority owner of the Las Vegas NHL franchise Bill Foley listens during a news conference introducing George McPhee as the team's general manager at T-Mobile Arena on July 13, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS (KXNT) – If you were looking to score season tickets for Las Vegas’ still unnamed NHL hockey franchise, you may already be out of luck. More than a year ahead of their first game, the organization has reached capacity and won’t accept any more season ticket deposits for packages covering their inaugural 2017-2018 season, the team announced Monday.

In a statement announcing the milestone, team owner Bill Foley recognized the Las Vegas community overwhelming support in reaching their 16,000 season ticket maximum at the new T-Mobile Arena.

“We launched a season ticket drive in February 2015 to demonstrate the long-term viability of an NHL franchise in Las Vegas and were able to surpass our initial goal within months,” Foley said. “Since then, we have hired an outstanding [hockey operations staff]. Today, we are proud to announce that season tickets for the 2017 season are sold out. This is a truly historic event for the Las Vegas community, the NHL and all of our fans. I would like to thank everyone who has supported and continues to support our efforts to make the Las Vegas NHL franchise a success.”

The organization began collecting season ticket deposits in Feb. 2015, long before the NHL officially approved the addition of the Las Vegas franchise. With an initial goal of 10,000 deposits, Las Vegas fans quickly responding, surpassing 5,000 deposits within two days and reaching 9,000 by March 2015. That number had eclipsed 13,000 by the time the NHL Board of Governors finally admitted the franchise into the league last June. The T-Mobile Arena is expected to accommodate about 17,500 fans per game in its hockey seating configuration.

While the season ticket limit has been reached, the team will still accept deposits for a spot on a waiting list to buy any remaining ticket packages for the opening season.

The team is expected to finally announce a nickname, logo and team colors next month.